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GODZILLA received a giant media event premiere Thursday night at the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard that was mostly attended by media and movie industry insiders. The press corps appeared to number in the several hundred with an equal number of Warner Bros staffers and security. The only thing missing were fans of the movie. Most of the people I saw on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard appeared to be fans of the actors and other celebrities, tourists, amateur paparazzi and the professional autograph hunters who attend every red carpet event.

Ten years earlier, the nearby Chinese Theater was the site of the GODZILLA: FINAL WARS premiere and the ceremony unveiling Godzilla’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because the stars of that movie were largely unknown in the U.S., both the star ceremony and movie premiere had a much lower local news media profile, however due to abundant advance publicity, there was a much larger turnout of fans of Godzilla movies.

Asian news media was heavily represented Thursday night, and camera teams prowled the crowd urging attendees to loudly demonstrate their love of Godzilla. Several correspondents interviewing attendees wore ID badges that read “Toho Media.” Many of those testimonies sounded like people trying to act as if Godzilla was a big part of their life. As Godzilla is a household word in the U.S. and almost everyone knows what the monster is, the crowd I saw certainly did not appear to be Godzilla fans that readers of ScFi Japan would recognize or identify with.

A couple, from England, near me caught one of the T-shirts tossed to the crowd by Warner Bros staff. Inside their T-Shirt was a pair of tickets to the movie. The woman was very excited to be visiting from England and stumbling into the event and inadvertently catching a T-Shirt (I am not jealous, I’m not I’M NOT). While the woman, who did not indicate any awareness of Godzilla, seemed eager to see the movie, her male companion appeared dismissive of Godzilla movies and offered to sell me his ticket. I think he was kidding, but he was obviously much less interested in seeing the movie than his companion.

I ended up standing at the corner where celebrities who had walked past the media would turn to walk into the theater. This corner was where the autograph-seekers were stationed so I was squeezed between the stars and their autograph hounds. I was also almost crushed in when stars consented to pose for “ourselfies” or whatever you call a selfie with another person, like a celebrity. Gene Simmons almost landed in my lap (I did not ask him to) as he tried to comply with a person behind me requesting a group photo that I did not want to be in. However, I did not object to being less than a foot away from Elizabeth Olsen as she signed autographs.

I recognized Yoshimitsu Bannno, an executive producer of Legendary Pictures GODZILLA and director of GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER (GODZILLA VS HEDORAH). Mr. Banno was kind enough to spend a few minutes chatting with me and gave me his business card.

I also recognized another Godzilla fan who I had seen at other kaiju-related events and he took time to remind me that the Godzilla of 1954 was the real Godzilla, unlike the titular monster of the 2014 Legendary Godzilla movie. Check back with SciFi Japan after May 10 to read my opinion if this Godzilla is really Godzilla or it is in name only.